A Beginning of Sorts
by Bedlams Bard
Summary: Chapter III added: Man Down: Logan's taken a tumble and it looks as though things are becoming a little stressed out in the mansion.
1. Prologue

**Title:** A Beginning of Sorts   
**Author:** Bedlam's Bard   
**Summary:** An old friend pays a visit to the school.   
**Pairing:** Many, many within. Each chapter will contain its own headsup for you lovely people.   
**Rating:** PG for this bit at least.   
**Universe:** Set in the movie universe, after the movie. With the second movie coming up fast, I'd also say that it's more than a little AU. So, movie verse with a little of the comics and my very own madness thrown in for good luck.   
**Disclaimer:** Insert your own sarky disclaimer here. They aren't mine but the things they do are. Especially the downright stupid things.   
**Feedback:** Yes please! Send anything helpful to absurdissimum@aol.com. Feed the plot bunnies!   
**Notes:** Well, this is the first part of something much, much longer. Consider this a it of a teaser, there was a trailer but I'll save that until someone actually shows interest in it. Also, "_" mean conversation and ~_~ telepathically sent conversation. 

  


  
**Prologue**   
The car crunched to a halt on the gravel drive right in front of the house. On the steps they waited as patiently as they could, all bristling with tension and a distinct edge of fear. Logan growled deep in his throat, restrained purely by the firm hand of Storm on his shoulder. None of them was happy about the arrival of the sleek, black Jag, but it seemed that some of the older students could at least understand its significance. 

Then with infinite slowness the driver's door opened and the man whom Logan had loathed ever since their first meeting stepped out. Magneto. Unable to help himself Logan stepped forward, only to be pulled up sharply by Scott who had an inexplicable expression. No one spoke. They merely stared as the tall, arresting figure stepped around the car, pulled off his dark hat and stood directly before them all with a brilliantly magnanimous smile. 

"Hello Charles." He said lightly, turning his hat in his hands with distraction. His lightly accented voice, speaking so clearly of his Eastern European heritage, clear and precise. 

"Erik." Came the rather stiff reply, as the professor sat staring not just at his old friend but also at the car behind him. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was his car, the car that Erik had driven off in years before after their last tumultuous argument. The one Erik had effectively stolen, but Charles had never reported, as he'd sat in almost exactly the same place and watched him drive away. Now, so many years later he returned in the same car to the dream that they had conceived together. The gesture was far from lost on the professor. 

"I've kept it in storage for a long time…" Erik said slowly, looking directly at Charles and ignoring the menacing stares from the students. 

~There's still a space for it in the garage~ Charles sent telepathically, unable to keep his surprise and slightly sentimental pleasure out of the thought. "It's good to see you again, old friend." 

It was true. For standing before him Charles did not see Magneto, here was Erik and solely Erik. It was a thought that brought a smile unbidden to his lips. A smile that Erik returned without thought. 

The poignant moment did not go unnoticed amongst the others and even Logan was given pause for a moment as he watched the big bad Magneto look down at his feet, seemingly lost for words. But not for long. He tried to push past Scott but the two women closed in around him also, and the wall of bodies kept him back. 

Erik glanced at the others and it seemed as though he was reconsidering whether he had made the right decision. Charles was pained by his expression and the thought that they might both loose everything again when they were so close to finding some reconciliation. 

~Storm, take Logan inside for me please. The others will go with you~ 

Whilst they dragged the protesting Wolverine inside Erik simply stared at Charles. It seemed to him to be years since they had last spoken without letting their conflicting views drive a wedge between them. There was a great swell if sadness in his breast as he reached out to Charles' delicately probing mind. 

~Perhaps this was not such a good idea, Charles. I should not have come~ 

~Please, Erik, you've come this far to talk with me…will you not at least come inside?~ 

There was an awkward silence as both men tried to keep up his stoical stance, but wanted desperately for the other to admit defeat. They were both too proud. 

~Will you invite me in then?~ 

~Will you join me inside, old friend?~ the professor asked expectantly. There was another tense moment as neither moved and it seemed as though things could go either way. Then at last Erik nodded and slipped his hat back on. Together they both crossed the threshold. 


	2. Chapter I

**Summary:** Erik can't sleep and it turns out he's not the only one.   
**Pairings:** Several possible ones implied.   
**Notes:** This was written at 03.30 on a stormy Sunday night. It was fun to write, I hope it's as fun for you to read. I'm a little worried about the end though. 

  


  
**Chapter I**   
There was a clock. 

Somewhere in the room there was a damned clock and now, in the darkness, the constant 'tick tick' was robbing him of his sleep. As he sat on the end of his bed Erik contemplated how the most of mundane household objects could so easily become a form of torture far more maddening than anything the Chinese could have come up with. He stifled a yawn as the idiotic thought that Logan had placed the clock purposefully in attempt to drive him out of the house. But it was by far too subtle for the likes of him. 

Scott perhaps? The young man certainly wanted rid of him as much as Logan did, even if he was more careful to hide his hostility. Between the two of them Erik considered Scott to be the most dangerous by far. Logan would rush into a fight without thought, whereas Scott would let his own anger stoke the engines of thought and he would bide his time waiting for the perfect moment when an attack would be most likely to succeed. Of course, the minor detail that the metal buried deep within Logan's thoughtless body sung out to him whenever the idiot strolled within a hundred yards had nothing to do with his disregard for him. 

With a solemn expression Erik stood up and fumbled in the dark for his dressing gown. There was no way that he was going to get any sleep with the insidious tick tick tick running through his head. So, instead he pulled on the dressing gown and fled the clock before it drove him entirely out of his mind. 

As the door snickered closed behind him he stumbled to a halt staring down at the carpeted floor and his naked feet. An odd, empty gnawing feeling ate its way through his system and forced him to look up and right. And there it was. He shook his head bitterly unsure why for a moment he had thought it might have changed, as if the years and the pain between would have altered the architecture of the house itself. 

He stared for a long while, the sounds of the slumbering house going unheard in the distance, as his head argued with his heart. Eventually his fear won through and lowering his gaze he turned his back on Charles' door and walked away. 

He tried not to think about how easy it would have been to draw back the bolt and slip inside. About how many times he had done it before, years ago now, on those dark nights when the nightmares had seemed endless. Everything was so familiar and yet so strange as he walked away shying from the memories. There was no going back, he knew that better than anyone, so why did he still dream of it? 

Erik suddenly frowned, snapped out of his thoughts sharply as he noticed that there was a light up ahead. It was the blue-grey flickering light cast by a television in a dark room, the kind that any insomniac learned to loathe and love early on. 

There was no sound as he approached the communal lounge warily, thinking that perhaps some of the students were being rebellious and staying up to watch things not meant for young eyes. Standing in the doorway he was paused for a long moment unsure of what he should do. The shadows danced across the silent room as he stared at the back of the couch; the back of her head. Erik cleared his throat. 

  


~

  
"Sorry!" 

Rogue gasped out the word as she snapped to her feet spinning around in guilty fear. She hadn't meant to be up so late, she hadn't meant to get caught either. Wide-eyed she could only stare at the figure silhouetted against the hall light in the doorway. She almost screamed. But as her jaw dropped the sound died deep in the back of her throat, escaping as little more than a sigh. 

"You stopped coming to visit." His voice was as smoothly charming as she remembered, making him sound like a cultured European Count, but now it held an edge of accusation in it that set her hair on end. 

"Ah…sorry." As soon as the broken apology escaped her lips she wanted to call it back. Why was she apologising to a man who had tried to kill her? The truth of it was perhaps something neither of them cared to admit, but she had made her real peace with him long ago in those few clandestine visits to the prison. 

The first trip had been the hardest, as she had spent weeks convincing the professor that it really was a good idea for her to visit Erik. To find that 'closure'. When she had, they had simply sat for an entire hour staring at each other across the plastic table in that plastic hell. His memories had been too fresh, his nightmares too raw in her mind for her to be able to bare the confinement. How he had coped she would never fully understand. 

"I was concerned that perhaps something had happened." He spoke softly, moving carefully towards her, and then stopping to lean against the back of the couch. 

"Nothing…bad happened." She murmured, somehow not knowing how just how to explain those events of nearly a year gone to him. 

"Logan?" 

She'd forgotten how perceptive he was and now she found herself nodding. "He came home. He nearly tore the place apart when he smelt you on me. I couldn't…" 

"I understand." 

"And then your lawyer made mincemeat of the prosecutors…" Rogue gave a quick weak, but heartfelt, smile. "I was glad when they let you go. And with an apology too!" 

"With a little help from Mystique acting as Senator Kelly, it opened a lot of peoples eyes to the mistreatment of mutants." Erik replied stiffly and she knew that there was more too it than that. To be locked up again, to be denied his most basic freedoms and abilities that he'd fought so hard to make his own, it must have brought the horrors of his earlier confinement in the death camp flooding back with unnatural clarity. It must have been like living in hell. 

"I should have visited…" 

With excessive casualness he shrugged and brushed the comment aside with a dismissive wave of his hand. She watched as he moved around the couch to take a seat and patted the place next to him. 

"How are things going here in the school for you?" The question was so mundane and sat on the sofa in his neat little dressing gown and pj's he looked laughably like some benign old uncle come to visit. 

She dropped down onto the cushion next to him and smiled slightly shyly. "My classes are going well. And for the first time in a long time I fell like I actually belong somewhere. I've made a lot of friends…" 

"Boys?" he asked with a slightly amused look. 

"A couple. There's two I really like but-" She broke off the sentence, choking back a silent sob. What was the point of falling for any guy when she would never even be able to hold hands with him? 

"Tell me about these young men?" 

"Remi and Bobby." She said softly, staring down at her safely gloved hands. "I think Logan hates them both." 

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Erik said quietly, sharing with her a conspiritial grin. 

"Bobby is lovely, he's cute and kind, and I think he likes me too. Remi…Remi likes me a lot. But nothing can ever happen, can it?" She looked up at him to see his intense eyes cast sideways to watch her carefully. She hunched over her crossed legs, suddenly feeling entirely foolish. Here she was in the early hours of a Monday morning moaning about the angst of her teenage love life - or lack of it - to the man she shared so much more with. His fears had pointed out her own. His purest hopes and dreams had highlighted all that she believed well in the world. Oh, he had his own dark and twisted dreams too, those that were tainted by his experiences in the past that had warped his 'dream' of a better future. But having shared his memories she could understand all of that, perhaps better than anyone. Erik saw all of that, or at least the edges of it, there was so much of him in her that her understood her now better than she understood herself at times. Or at least that was the way it seemed. 

"My dear," he said gently as he reached out to stroke her hair, the feathery white streaks she had inherited from him, "You're young and you have all of your life ahead of you to meet boys, to find love. You'll learn to control your gift as we all do, and then you'll be free. Have a little faith?" 

And then she was sobbing silently, his arms wrapped around her as she laid her head down on his lap. She hadn't meant to be up so late. She hadn't meant to get caught either. She certainly didn't mean to fall asleep on Magneto's lap. 


	3. Chapter II

**Summary:** The team isn't impressed by the Professor's decision to let Magneto stay, Logan even more so. But then the student's seem to have ideas of their own as well.   
**Pairings:** Scott/Jean   
**Notes:** This chapter is a long time coming, but it took a while to decide in which order to do things. The next one should be along much, much sooner. 

  


  
**Chapter II**   
The coffee was cold but he continued to nurse it anyway, hunched over the table staring into the previously steaming depths of the mug. Jean shot him a penetrating stare every now and then, but neither of them could bring themselves to say anything. It was incredible how she could make even her silence accusing. It infuriated him how she refused to see his point of view, how she was stubbornly and idiotically defending Lensherr. 

"I'm not going into it again, you know." Jean said in a prickly tone. 

"Fine." Scott answered without looking up from his mug. 

"I mean, you should take me for my word. I shouldn't have to explain every minor detail to you, you should just trust me." She continued, as she continued to wipe down the kitchen counter. 

Scott frowned and looked up at her then. There was more going on here than she was letting on, but he knew her too well to pry too deeply. She wouldn't lie to him, but she would get very angry if he asked questions she wasn't able to answer truthfully. "What did the professor tell you?" 

"The same thing he told us all. That Mister Lensherr will be staying for a while as a guest." Jean said with great care, refusing to look at him but paying immense attention to the cleaning cloth. 

"And?" 

"And nothing!" she snapped and threw the cloth across the room and into the sink. "I don't know any more than you do." 

Scott said nothing but watched her closely, "But?" 

Jean turned on him, hands on hips and looking as though she was about to cut him in half with the sharp edge of her tongue when something even worse happened. 

Logan said, "I would try to avoid making her mad if I was you Scooter." 

The worst part of all was that Scott was, if only for an instant, grateful to Logan. He was grateful that the reckless idiot had interrupted Jean's concentration and given him precious time to escape. 

"You." Jean said accusingly as she shifted her attention to Logan lounging against the doorframe, "Stay out of this." 

"Sorry sweet thing, but in this matter I have to agree with Scooter." Logan said with a grimace, "That monster is a threat to us all. I can't believe Chuck is letting him stay, is putting the kids in danger." 

"You know damn well the professor would never put these children in any danger." Jean snapped. "Why can't the two of you just lay off him?" 

"Oh, I dunno..." Logan said as he turned to leave, snapping over his shoulder, "Maybe because he tried to kill us all?" 

~

"Go on!" Jubilee said in a hoarse whisper, "We know he's not in there, so it's not like you're gonna get caught or anything..." 

Kitty rolled her eyes and shook her head, "Oh, easy for you to say, you're not the one going in." 

"Look, just go in, take a look around and come out." Jubes said in an overly sure tone, "I'll stay right here and keep a look out. If someone comes you'll hear and you can slip into one of the other rooms. Okay?" 

It sounded simple enough and she had to admit she was just as keen to see what the monster had in his bedroom as Jubes was. But somehow it still seemed like spying to Kitty. 

It had been nearly six months since Marie had confided in them both what had happened with Magneto and about her little visits to see him in prison. When he'd turned up on the mansions doorstep yesterday they'd both flocked to Marie's side to offer what comfort and protection they could. They caught one fleeting glimpse of the man on his way to the professor's office and that had been it. 

But something had changed over night. This morning Marie had pushed them both away, she'd been avoiding them, avoiding everyone and now it was time to find out why. To find out exactly what was going on. Silently she nodded and before she could think her way out of it again she phased through the door and slipped into Magneto's bedroom. 

The room itself was light and airy, though there was mustiness in the air that suggested that it hadn't been opened in a very long time. Opposite her the windows were flung wide open, letting in cool fresh air and filling the room with clear daylight. It was all almost frighteningly neat and tidy, everything arranged just so. Even the moth eaten dressing gown hung over the back of an old oak chair seemed to be specifically placed. 

"What's it like?" hissed Jubes through the door. 

"Tidy." answered Kitty with an unseen shrug. There was nothing else particularly odd about it. There were some books, an empty glass and some car keys on the bedside table. It wasn't a room anyone lived in, just a place where someone came to sleep every now and then. It was like a hotel room, impersonal, slightly uncomfortable and very unnerving. 

She stepped further into the room, looking down as the deep carpet settled over the soles of her shoes. Looking back up she noted that all of the furnishings were as rich and fine. That didn't detract from the fact that it was so empty though. She strolled over to a chest of draws and pulled open the middle draw. Neatly pressed shirts sat within in smart rows, all precisely organised and folded. She smiled. They smelt of orange and lemon. 

She closed the draw and turned her attention to the things sat on the bedside table. She picked up the glass first, surreptitiously sniffing at it. Grimacing she put it back down carefully from where she'd picked it up, she'd never liked the smell of scotch. She looked at the spines of the battered paperback books, Dante's Inferno and Plato's Republic. They looked like books the Professor would read. The keys she guessed her from the Jag he'd turned up in. A car all the boys were drooling over. She smiled at the thought of telling them how close she got to actually having the keys to the car. They'd be mad with jealousy. 

She sighed, doing a quick turn of the room to be sure it was all exactly as she'd found it and made her way to the door. It really was untouched, anyone just coming across it wouldn't be able to tell how long it had been since it's owner had ever set foot in here let alone spent a night or anything. It was nothing like she'd expected at all. Not that she knew what she'd been expecting. 

"Its weird yah know? Like he's not planning on staying very long which..." Kitty started explaining as she phased backwards through the door to get out of the room. Her words died on her tongue though as she turned around to see Jubes stood gawping at her and Magneto glaring over her head. 

"How dare you!" He ground out past clenched teeth, "How dare you?" 

He placed one hand firmly on Jubes' shoulder, but as he did she cried out and shied away as though stung. She spun around to stand next to Kitty, waving both of her hands about in front of her in a threatening manner. 

"Don't even think about hurting us old man," she stammered out as both girls began to edge their way back down the corridor. Kitty holding on tightly to Jubilee's arm just in case Magneto tried to try anything and she had to phase them both. 

But he didn't look as though he was going to do anything. He just stood there in the hall, one eyebrow arched dramatically and a small dark smile playing its way across his features. As though he wanted to laugh at them. A shudder ran down Kitty's spine. Then suddenly he raised one hand and opened his mouth as though he were about to say something... 

It was too late, Jubilee shouted out in fright and bravado first, "You ain't never gonna hurt Marie!" Suddenly a dark shape was flying over them both and they tripped and landed awkwardly on the carpet. 

Staring up with shock Kitty managed to gasp, "Logan?" 


	4. Chapter III

**Summary:** Man Down: Logan's taken a tumble and it looks as though things are becoming a little stressed out in the mansion.   
**Pairings:** Lot's of friendships   
**Notes:** Not much to say this time around, just be sure to let me know what y'all think :) 

  


  
**Chapter III**   
"I have to say I resent being confined to quarters, Charles." Erik said archly as he stiffly accepted the proffered drink, "I didn't escape the grasps of one prison just to accept another. No matter how fine the drink." 

"I know, and you're hardly imprisoned here." Charles replied as he manoeuvred his chair around the table to sit opposite Erik, across the chessboard. He looked down into his own glass briefly trying to arrange his thoughts and the words to express them. The last thing he wanted was Erik getting defensive. 

They had spent too many years at odds with each other. Old arguments had built great walls and chasms between them, but here they were at some semblance of truce that might so easily be snatched away by some hasty remark upon either part. Suddenly the warm confines of his office seemed suffocating. The walls pressing in on him and the drink overly bitter on his palate. 

~I won't bite~ Erik's voice softly cut through all preparation. 

"Pardon?" Charles asked, as he looked up startled by the sudden intrusion into his thoughts from such an unexpected quarter. 

"I said I won't bite." Erik explained with a benign smile as he sipped his scotch. "Say what you have to say, Charles. I won't bite. I understand that I'm a guest here, at your discretion only. I also know that as much as I loathe the damn fool, you consider him a part of your 'team' now." 

Following this revelation both men sat in tense, terse silence surprised by this abrupt middle ground that they found themselves standing upon after so many years. Charles was afraid to say anything in case the illusion vanished. In case he found himself waking from this sweet delusion he'd spun out from long hours of sitting alone in the dark and rerunning old arguments. Erik sat stiffly in the chair, not quite believing he'd spoken the words he'd rehearsed since the incident this morning. Unfortunately they sounded as insincere in the open air as he'd feared they would in his head. 

"I know that you didn't start anything this morning." Charles said in an unthreatening tone. He looked down abruptly, toying slightly with the label of his tie. Staring Erik frowned slightly wondering exactly what was going on. Then suddenly a thought struck him. 

"You were spying!" Erik breathed out in indignant shock, suddenly tapping his temple, "You were eavesdropping the whole time. What? Have you been sitting in there all day, just to make sure I didn't hurt one of your precious little xmen?" 

"You know me better than that Erik." Charles said reprovingly as he shook his head, "You were angry. I worried. I only caught the tail end of it, but it was enough to let me know that you're right and you weren't looking for a fight." 

"You were spying!" Erik growled snapping to his feet and putting distance between them by crossing to the drinks cabinet and refilling his glass. His every movement, his every action bristled with righteous fury. 

Charles paused sometime, "I did not intrude Erik. In your anger your guard was down." 

"Oh." Erik said as he drained his scotch and sat back in his chair derisively, "and that makes it all so much better does it?" 

~Erik...~ 

"No. Charles, don't." Erik snapped, then collapsing back down into his chair he spoke with all the weariness of the world, "This can't go on. Not like this." 

~

She moved about the infirmary with such ease, using her powers so that it but seemed an extension of her self. She spoke seemingly to herself as well, though it was all directed at the prone figure splayed out upon the bed before her. Unconscious for the day Logan snoozed quietly oblivious to what was going on around him. Jean too carried on oblivious to the two watchers that stood in the hall, staring as she worked. 

"Looks like that thick skull of his has saved his life yet again." Scott commented lightly. He flashed a quick smile to the lady at his side, but glanced away quickly when he found it was not returned. 

"He was lucky." 'Ro said softly, "but I can't help but feel that Magneto knew what he was doing." 

"You mean when he threw the wolverine through a wall?" Scott asked dryly, folding his arms across his chest, his expression darkening slightly as Jean leant over Logan. 

'Ro watched her companion for a moment and nodded, "Yes." 

Turning away from the infirmary Scott began to walk away, 'Ro keeping pace at his side. "But he tossed a grown man through a wall and that's not an easy thing to do, especially with one of these walls" 

"But it is an easy thing to do. Think about it Scott, to Magneto tossing a lump of metal around isn't exactly difficult. And as we found out before, he can play Logan like a puppet." 

"And yet Logan keeps going back for more." 

"He's stubborn." 'Ro said with a slight smile as she thought of another man not too far from her equally as wilful. 

"Or perhaps he just likes being hurt." Scott said darkly as he looked straight ahead. 

"I see things haven't improved between the two of you." 'Ro commented dryly as she cast Scott a quick sideways glance. "You're not so different from each other you know." 

"Please don't start. I don't need some sort of lecture right now, all right?" Scott said with an angry shake of his head. "I just think that anyone with two brain cells would have worked out that he couldn't sneak up on the 'master of magnetism' with a metal skeleton. I mean come on! Talk about thick as two planks...the man's as dense as a bank vault." 

'Ro couldn't help but laugh at Scott's little rant, the sound echoing slightly in the absurdly clean halls beneath the mansion. She wondered fleetingly if Jean could hear her from the infirmary. For some reason she hoped so. When she saw Scott break into one of his wonderfully carefree grins all of a sudden she knew things were going to be fine. 

"Come on, let's go see if we can't get this school back under control." she said as they approached the lift, "Before the kids bring down the roof altogether." 

~

"What the hell is going on?" Marie snapped as they both strolled rather sheepishly into their shared bedroom. She stood in the middle of the floor with her hands planted firmly on her hips demanding to know what had happened and what was going on in tones that sounded oddly reminiscent of Miss Grey. 

Kitty was the first to come up with an answer as she smiled thinly and said, "You know, it's been a long day and we've made all the explanations we care to, to the professor. So, if you don't mind I'd really like to just sit down and do some homework." 

"What?" asked Jubes in shock as she gawped at Kitty before recovering her senses and nodded in agreement. 

"You've got a hell of a lot more explaining to do before you do anything." Marie insisted as she stared coldly at them both. "What possessed you to go snooping around in Mr. Lensherr's room?" 

Her tone was short and sharp, brooking no argument. An icy shiver ran up her spine as she realised that it was his tone, his diction. Once more his words crept through her mind, 'we're more alike, you and I, than either of us may ever know'. 

"We were curious." Jubes said as she dropped down onto her bed with a sigh, "You can't tell me that you're not in the slightest bit curious. That there isn't a tiny part of you that doesn't want to ask?" 

Marie shook her head firmly and sat down on the edge of her own bed, her arms folding stiffly across her chest. "I already know. Remember?" 

"You know stuff like that?" Kitty asked with shock, "Like what he keeps next to his bed?" 

"A copy of Plato." Marie said as her anger seeped out of her and she hung her head, "The Republic. He wants a perfect society too. He doesn't go anywhere without a copy." 

"Jesus, total weirdo huh?" Jubes with a grimace, turning to look up at Kitty who was watching Marie with concern. 

"Shut up, Jubes." she said with a sigh walking across the room to sit down next to Rogue, she slipped her arm around the other girls covered shoulders. At first Rogue tensed at the sudden unfamiliar closeness, but the she gradually relaxed beneath her friends comforting touch. "We're sorry, okay? We didn't mean to cause trouble we just wanted to have a look..." 

"At what a monster keeps in his bedroom?" Marie finished raggedly. 

"We're sorry." Jubes said as she sat down on Marie's other side, slipping her arm around her waist so that all three girls were linked. "We were worried about you. You've been acting weird since he arrived and we thought maybe we'd find something that might help. Some explanation. We were curious." 

They didn't say anything after that, not for a long time. Just sat in comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts as they rested their heads against each other. Jubes wondered if perhaps they'd done the right thing after all. They hadn't talked like this for a long time. Kitty sat pondering the point of lemon smelling shirts. All the while Marie wondered where it would all end. But then again perhaps that was a question she didn't really want the answer to. 


End file.
